Tom Hardy’s Double Whammy: Actor Plays Both Kray Twins In New Film ‘Legend’ Tom Hardy’s Double Whammy: Actor Plays Both Kray Twins In New Film ‘Legend’ Tim Butters Tom Hardy has received rave reviews for his performance of both Ronnie and Reggie Kray in the trailer for the upcoming film biopic about the notorious East End villains. It’s rare for film critics to start gushing with praise on the strength of a trailer alone, but Tom Hardy is no ordinary actor, and that’s probably why Hardy was handpicked to play both Reginald and Ronald Kray in the upcoming movie Legend. As well as being a pair of ruthless and violent gangsters, Ronnie and Reggie were larger than life characters whose life and times have been documented in countless books, but strangely enough, until now, only one movie. The Krays , released in 1990 and staring British pop peacocks Gary and Martin Kemp, never really managed to capture any atmosphere of authenticity or sense of gritty realism. Given that the Kemp brothers were more famous for hammering out 1980’s power pop in Spandau Ballet, than playing legendary London villains, it’s not surprising.

Anyone who has seen Tom Hardy’s star turn as psychotic Jewish gangster Alfie Solomons in Peaky Blinders, will know the thuggish thespian is more than capable of giving a more than convincing turn as not just one but two Kray villains. For Hardy fans, Legend is a double whammy. And for those interested in the Krays it’s also good news, because the film directed by Brian Helgeland (L.A Confidential, Mystic River) is based on the definitive book on the twins, John Pearson’s The Profession Of Violence: The Rise And Fall Of The Kray Twins. Backing Hardy in his star turn is the equally impressive Christopher Eccleston , who plays tenacious cop Leonard “Nipper” Read, the Detective Chief Superintendent responsible for taking down the Kray twins in the 1960s. Emily Browning plays Francis Shea, Reggie’s wife, and supporting actors include Colin Morgan, Paul Bettany, David Thewlis and Kingsman‘s Taron Egerton. The trailer for Legend hints that the violence will be sprinkled with a liberal dose of black humour.

In the released clip Hardy seemingly relishes the contrast of Ronnie Kray’s more violent, psychopathic, and slightly unhinged personality and the more sensible, restrained, and civilized front that Reggie liked to put on for a watching world. Legend will be released in cinemas on September 9. Video: Tom Hardy doubles up as the Kray Twins in Legend trailer - Telegraph Tom Hardy doubles up as the Kray Twins in Legend trailer Watch: The first glimpse of Tom Hardy playing both Reggie and Ronnie Kray 12:08PM BST 30 Apr 2015 Tom Hardy stars in a forthcoming film about the infamous East End criminals, the Kray Twins - not as just one brother, but as both. In the first trailer for Legend, we watch Hardy cruise around Sixties London as both Reginald "Reggie" and Ronald "Ronnie" Kray, embark on romance with Frances Shea (Emily Browning) and exchange blows with enemies in between luxuriating in sinks full of cash and plush hotel rooms.

Tom Hardy plays both Reginald "Reggie" and Ronald "Ronnie" Kray Brian Helgeland, the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind LA Confidential and Mystic River, directs this account of the rise and fall of London's most notorious gangsters. Ronnie and Reggie Kray refresh themselves with a cup of tea (Getty Images) The Krays owned a nightclub in the West End, which allowed them access to the glamorous life of the rich and famous, but they also ran a gang of organised criminals, known as The Firm, which was responsible for arson, assault, armed robberies, protection rackets and the murders of Jack "The Hat" McVitie and George Cornell. Legend hits the big screen on September 11 By the end of the Sixties, both were caught by the police after living prominently in the public eye. They were were sentenced to life in prison in 1969. Legend will be released on September 11. Sixty.TV Review | Legend Movie 2015 Tom Hardy plays both Kray Twins - YouTube Sixty.TV Review | Legend Movie 2015 Tom Hardy plays both Kray Twins Want to watch this again later?

Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Oct 4, 2015 Our first video is a text review of the movie "Legend" staring Tom Hardy playing both roles. Category tom hardy plays kray twins ronnie and reggie in new film legend | Films | Entertainment | Daily Express FILMS VIDEO: Tom Hardy is terrifying as BOTH Kray twins in Legend - watch him in action here THE KRAY TWINS terrorised London in the 1950s and 1960s – Batman star Tom Hardy chillingly brings Ronnie and Reggie to life in the first clip from new film Legend. 13:43, Fri, May 1, 2015 | UPDATED: 08:24, Thu, Sep 10, 2015 FS Tom Hardy as Ronnie and Reggie Kray Last time the Kray brothers hit the big screen they were portrayed by Gary and Martin Kemp in the originally titled 1990 film, The Krays.

This time around, Brit actor Tom Hardy is taking on both roles in Legend. The actor has an impressive track record playing brutal types. Following on from terrifying turns as Bane in Batman's The Dark Knight Rises and the title role in the Charles Bronson biopic, Bronson, he will also be hitting the big screen as another iconic figure when he takes the lead in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road. But there are few characters, real or fictional, more extraordinary than the twin crime lords. As can be seen from this preview clip, it was impossible to tell them apart. The most famous difference between the brothers in real life was that Ronnie flaunted his male lovers in public. To make things a little bit easier for the cinema audience here, Ronnie is usually portrayed wearing thick glasses in the hard-hitting film, while Reggie does not.

SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH THE FIRST CLIP OF TOM HARDY AS BOTH KRAY BROTHERS FS Ronnie is most easily identified by the dark glasses In the film, Oscar-winning director Brian Helgeland tells the explosive true story of the rise and fall of the UK’s most famous gangsters, who controlled organized crime in London in the 1950s and 1960s with their gang, The Firm. The Krays were involved in major crimes from armed robbery to protection rackets and multiple murders but their status as West End nightclub owners also allowed them to mix with biggest stars of the day, like Frank Sinatra and Judy Garland and become celebrities in their own right. The following preview clip is the first footage released of Hardy playing opposite himself as the deadly duo. WATCH OUR CLIP FROM LEGEND NEXT Legend is also another opportunity to catch fast-rising British actor Taron Egerton, who headlined the recent spy caper Kingsman: The Secret Service with Colin Firth and Samuel L Jackson. FS Tom Hardy and Christopher Eccleston The film also stars Sucker Punch’s Emily Browning alongside British actors David Thewlis and Christopher Eccleston. LEGEND is released in cinemas across the UK on September 11.

The Kray Twins Thu, September 10, 2015 Twin brothers Ronnie and Reggie Kray, known as the Kray Twins, were English gangsters who were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in East London during the 1950s and 1960s. Ronnie and Reggie Kray's mugshot after their arrest in the 1940s [Caters] Related articles Tom Hardy Plays Kray Twins in 'Legend' 2015 Movie Trailer [VIDEO] Taron Egerton Costars : MStarsNews Tom Hardy Plays Kray Twins in 'Legend' 2015 Movie Trailer [VIDEO] Taron Egerton Costars By Jon Niles | Apr 30, 2015 06:00 PM EDT Get the Most Popular Mstars News (Photo : facebook.com/LegendFilmUK) In the upcoming film Legend, Tom Hardy portrays the infamous London gangsters Reginald and Ronald Kray. Taking on both roles of the twins in the movie from Oscar winning writer-director Brian Helgeland, Hardy puts on not one, but two top performances of his career.

Joined by Kingsman: The Secret Service star Taron Egerton and Hardy's Peaky Blinders costar Paul Anderson, the first trailer for this 2015 film premiered this week, making us hope a U.S. release date is announced soon! Watch this new video below. You can check out more movie news coverage from MStars News right here! Accompanied by Roy Orbison's '60s classic "Running Scared," this first look teaser trailer for Legend has us sold on the edgy British gangster flick. Taking on the film adaptation of the notorious Kray twins' rise to power is one thing, but placing Hardy in both roles is obviously an amazing move. Advertisement We also get a great taste of some deadly action and attitude from this tour de force Hardy performance. Are we looking at an award winning film right now? Check out this great teaser trailer for this new Tom Hardy film right here (via Studiocanal UK ): Let us know what you think of this trailer in the comments section below! Here is the official synopsis of Legend (via Slash Film ): From Academy Award® winner Brian Helgeland (L.A.

Confidential, Mystic River) and Working Title (The Theory of Everything) comes the true story of the rise and fall of London's most notorious gangsters, Reggie and Ron Kray, both portrayed by Tom Hardy in an amazing double performance. Together, the Kray brothers take over the city. But as their reign expands, power-struggles, fierce madness, and a woman weakens their bond - the weak link that could cause their empire to collapse. LEGEND takes us into the secret history of the 1960s and the extraordinary events that secured the infamy of the Kray twins. © 2017 Mstars News, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. Advertisement Legend (2015) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error From $9.99 (SD) on Amazon Video Identical twin gangsters Ronald and Reginald Kray terrorize London during the 1960s.

Director: a list of 42 titles created 29 Aug 2015 a list of 45 titles created 24 Sep 2015 a list of 38 titles created 19 Dec 2015 a list of 40 titles created 27 Dec 2015 a list of 40 titles created 4 weeks ago Search for " Legend " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. 5 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards » Videos Set in Depression-era Franklin County, Virginia, a trio of bootlegging brothers are threatened by a new special deputy and other authorities angling for a cut of their profits. Director: John Hillcoat A disgraced member of the Russian military police investigates a series of child murders during the Stalin-era Soviet Union. Director: Daniel Espinosa Bob Saginowski finds himself at the center of a robbery gone awry and entwined in an investigation that digs deep into the neighborhood's past where friends, families, and foes all work together to make a living - no matter the cost.

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Director: Steven Spielberg A woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in postapocalyptic Australia in search for her home-land with the help of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshipper, and a drifter named Max. Director: George Miller Edit Storyline The true story of London's most notorious gangsters, twins Reggie and Ronnie Kray. As the brothers rise through the criminal underworld, Ronnie advances the family business with violence and intimidation while Reggie struggles to go legitimate for local girl Frances Shea. In and out of prison, Ronnie's unpredictable tendencies and the slow disintegration of Reggie's marriage threaten to bring the brothers' empire tumbling to the ground. Power. Fear. Family. See more » Genres: Rated R for strong violence, language throughout, some sexual and drug material | See all certifications » Parents Guide: 20 November 2015 (USA) See more » Also Known As: $86,836 (USA) (20 November 2015) Gross: Did You Know?

Trivia When Ronnie tells Frances she had to cut a bit of herself off in order to grow to get over Reggie, it was the exact same thing Charles Bronson told Tom Hardy over the phone from prison who had just split up from his then girlfriend at the time using the oxford floods as a reference. See more » Goofs When Reggie and Frances are walking through London in wintertime, the black Austin FX4 Taxi seen is a 1970s model, made some years after this scene was set. A Taxi of the correct era would have the 'bunny-ears' indicators above the passenger doors and Austin-Healey style taillights. See more » Quotes [first lines] Frances Shea : London in the 1960s. Everyone had a story about the Krays. You could walk into any pub to hear a lie or two about them. But I was there and Im not careless with the truth. They were brothers, but bound by more than blood. They were twins as well, counterparts. Gangster princes of the city they meant to conquer. Ron Kray was a one-man London mob. Bloodthirsty, illogical, and funny as well. My Reggie was different.

Once in a lifetime do you find a street-fighting man like Reg. ... "This motion picture used sustainability strategies to reduce its carbon emissions and environmental impact." See more » Connections Courtesy of The Decca Music Group Ltd Under licence from Universal Music Operations Ltd Hardy is excellent, the rest is not so much 9 September 2015 | by themadmovieman (United Kingdom) – See all my reviews The story of the Kray twins is a fascinating one, full of violence and deceit. In Legend, that story isn't really taken to its full potential, thanks to an unfortunately clunky structure despite brilliant performances, good humour and violence. Let's start with the best part of this film, that is Tom Hardy's performances as Ronnie and Reggie Kray. The amazing special effects make the dual show possible, but within minutes of the start here, you completely forget that these two characters are played by the same man. Hardy completely disappears into both men, with an unnerving but humorous turn as the psychotic Ronnie, and a more understated but powerful performance as Reggie, and that really deserves some praise. What's more is that this film does make use of the very violent nature of the history very well.

As bloody as it is foul-mouthed, this isn't a pleasant film to watch, but the level of violence does leave an impression with regards to the Krays' crimes, making it seem all the more real, and all the more frightening. The big issue I have with this film, however, is that it's not an exhilarating watch. Historically interesting it may be, but at over two hours long, it's not something that will consistently entice you throughout. There are side plots that aren't picked up on enough, some characters don't get the development they really deserve based on the size of their role, and the plot takes a really long time to get going. The disappointing thing is that Legend isn't a bad film in any way, nor is it boring, but it gives you a sense of growing importance and tension towards a hopefully climactic end, but it never comes as you want it to. 112 of 127 people found this review helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes TheMixedMedic Tastemaker Featured I hadn't actually anticipated watching this movie, it just happened to be during the only time slot that worked when I turned up to the Everyman cinema in Hampstead.

My friend was far more keen than I and after reading the blurb I'd already decided it wasn't 'my kind of film'. However I absolutely loved it! Mainly thanks to Tom Hardy's incredible performance that left you seriously doubting whether he had actually played both characters himself. My favourite line was about the similarities between the aristocracy and criminals. A great film and one I would definitely recommend albeit a little long perhaps. Helpful? Julie R Tastemaker Featured I really enjoyed this film. I still can't remember which one is Ronnie and which is Reggie, but I thought Tom Hardy played a great part with the unhinged one, you could always feeling the tension of 'is he about to turn' bubbling under the service. He also played the part of the other one well, but I thought the film made him out to be a bit too nice and torn between going straight and the pull of the gangster world. It was quite violent in parts, but this didn't seem to be gratuitous and fitted in with the film. I do recommend seeing it, Tom Hardy is a superb actor. Just don't expect it to be too accurate to how it really was. Helpful?

Babs - Working Girl London Tastemaker Featured I had high expectations for this film and I was not disappointed. Far from watching Tom Hardy play the same character twice, I could easily have been watching two completely different actors. Tom Hardy embodied and committed to the character of each twin, and the talent of his supporting actors should not go unnoticed. When the film was described as a 'love story' in the opening scene I expected it to go downhill from there, but this was a clever, entertaining, informative format for telling the story of these notorious gangsters. There were some scenes which were beyond uncomfortable to watch...but then again they were notorious gangsters - it wouldn't be true to form if there weren't. Helpful? Tom Bruce Tastemaker Featured Tom Hardy's Charlie Bronson makes a vicious return to screen as not one Charlie Bronson pretending to be a Kray twin but two Charlie Bronsons pretending to be both Kray twins! This slickly shot, overtly Americanised relaying of the life of the terrifying twosome that ruled London for a bit does not really go anywhere you didn't expect it to, or delve deeper into the Kray twins' motivations than any book or series has done in the past.

Having not seen the Pet Shop Boys' take on the infamous East End gangsters it is difficult to say whether nobody has done them better than Tom Hardy has here, but it is a safe bet. Legend is a showcase of his acting range, alas with much of the subtlety removed due to the childish script; imagine if Madame Tussaud's did a moving wax work exhibition - this would be what their Hardy would be like, especially his Ronnie Kray, whose fake jaw, hooter and brow look like the stunt mask worn by Ryan Gosling in Drive - even from a distance it isn't convincing. Nightmare fuel. Brian Helgeland wrote L.A Confidential, a film which displayed his talent for capturing the essence of an historical period by distilling it into the recognisable elements of: popular alcoholic drinks and landmark events. An example of the latter would be a gangster in a grotty garage/interrogation facility watching the 1966 world cup final holding off the bobbies who were hauling him away until the England goal which didn't look like a goal was deemed a goal. The soundtrack was a 60s by-the-numbers hit list which wore thin twenty minutes in.

Much of Legend is shot strangely in the same vein as the aforementioned noir flick, which feels odd and a bit plastic-y, or 'superficialite', as Ronnie Kray was apparently wont to say. A range of "I know him/her, he/she was in Doctor Who" actors appear throughout, all of whom are good and some of whom are plain wasted - as in they get brutally killed, victims of the daily workings of gangland life. Of all the pretentious lows the film stoops to, the lowest of all is the voice over (by Emily Browning as Frances Shea) which comes with what Helgeland no doubt considered a clever twist but which ruins any hopes the film had of getting its audience to take it seriously from then on in. Don't bother, basically. You c*nts. It is OK to call you that, and relevant, because it is said in the film many times, and in the sixties was no worse than labeling a person a 'dirty beggar' or 'cheeky sod'. Helpful?

MikeT Featured There's been a lot of promotion of this film, including the Guardian Newspaper's two stars review being carefully squeezed between/layered behind the heads of "Ronnie" and "Reggie" on the poster, so that it looks like some of the Guardian's stars can't be seen! . I'm with the Guardian - this is definitely not a 4 star movie: Though this film is reasonably entertaining, it's very leaden in places, and not much is shown of the various rackets they ran. Some scenes were particularly long and pointless. (A number of people got restless in the cinema I was in, and several started playing with smartphones.) Some scenery was embarrassingly bad - particularly the very obviously painted view of St Pauls from the penthouse. Twenty minutes of this film could have fallen to the cutting room floor and would have left it harder hitting. . As Tom Hardy's Kray Twins film Legend is released we look at the real life gangsters | Daily Mail Online comments Having broken into the house he’d targeted, the burglar wasn’t content with mere theft. Grabbing hold of the owner’s dog, he held it down on a hot cooker hob until its body was horribly burned.

When he was caught and hauled before a court, the magistrate demanded to know why he had committed this crime of ‘incomprehensible cruelty’. Because, the crook explained — as if it was some sort of reasonable excuse — he wanted to be like those fabled torturers, the Kray twins. They, the magistrate said with massive understatement as he sent him to jail, ‘are not something very impressive to aspire to’. Scroll down for video Frances Shae toasting to future happiness with the Kray twins, after her marriage to Reggie Kray (right) Legend, a new film about Ronnie and Reggie Kray, sees actor Tom Hardy play the parts of both brothers Quite so. This tale of senseless sadism dates from 2003, by which time both Ronnie and Reggie were dead after decades behind bars for violent crimes. But their example — if that is what you can call it — lived on as an awful inspiration for those as mad and evil as they were.

For a pair of nasty low-life hoodlums, the Krays continue to hold a bizarre fascination, as potent today, it seems, as when celebrity photographer David Bailey immortalised them in the Sixties in their Savile Row suits, narrow ties and slicked-down hair. They stared menacingly into his camera at a time when, as Ronnie put it, ‘me and my brother ruled London. We were f***ing untouchable’. It seems that half a century later they still — sadly — have the drawing power of stars. RELATED ARTICLES Share 960 shares Legend, a new film about them, had its premiere this week, to rave reviews for actor Tom Hardy who plays both twins. It follows in the footsteps of a 1990 film with Spandau Ballet’s pop star brothers Gary and Martin Kemp as Ronnie and Reggie and award-winning actress Billie Whitelaw as their domineering mother, Vi. Over the years there have been enough memoirs, books and newspaper articles about the Kray twins to fill an entire criminology section, and the new film has prompted more.

Veteran BBC broadcaster Tom Mangold told readers of The Times how, as a young journalist, he introduced himself into the Krays’ orbit — but ended up taking an assignment in war-torn Vietnam rather than risk their wrath in London when they feared he might cooperate with the police against them. He wrote: ‘I’ve got be honest, there were nights with the twins and “The Firm” [their gang] that were just outstanding.’ Over the years, dozens of films and books have been made on Ronnie and Reggie Kray (pictured circa 1965) Anyone with the smallest connection has a story to tell — even their mum’s hairdresser, who happily chatted to The Guardian this week about how Vi Kray, sitting under the dryer, would be pestered by people wanting her sons to ‘have a word’ with someone on their behalf. On the small screen, several more documentaries about them are in the pipeline. The Krays: The Prison Years will appear soon on the Discovery Channel, while The Krays: Kill Order, is released on DVD next week.

Yet another film, The Rise Of The Krays — whose executive producer is the pornographer and joint chairman of West Ham David Sullivan — came out last month and will be followed by a sequel later this year. So it seems the macabre fascination is as great as ever. Yet, just like those who crossed their path in the East End all those years ago, we dabble in the lives of the Krays at our peril. The danger is that the violence becomes sanitised and the hard lessons we should learn from their criminal ways are lost — as they were on that thug who felt empowered by their example to cook a dog alive. The Mail’s film critic Brian Viner says of Legend that it ‘commits the error of genuflecting to its subjects just as their many acolytes did’ in real life. With their flash and swagger, there is a danger that they become pantomime villains rather than the deranged sadists they actually were. Some argue that the Krays were pretty rotten gangsters anyway, making the cardinal error of drawing attention to themselves rather than amassing their millions in the shadows. They loved the limelight too much, parading their friendships with the famous.

Judy Garland stood on a pub table and sang for them. Diana Dors simpered. World boxing champions Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Sonny Liston threw pretend ‘matey’ punches. Their high profile protected them for a while, but it also made them fixtures on Scotland Yard’s radar, and when the right time came, they were nicked and put away for life — hardly the career move of master-criminals. But they passed into the land of legend, as they had always wanted to. That, after all, was why they courted celebrities. As journalist Duncan Campbell put it: ‘The twins were always better at fame than crime.’ Ronnie and Reggie Kray pictured in 1966 after being questioned by police about the murder of George Cornell From left to right: Reggie, Charlie and Ronnie Kray outside their home in Bethnal Green, east London Monty Python parodied them as the Piranha Brothers, Doug and Dinsdale, who were ‘smashing blokes’ despite their psychotic violence. ‘They had to nail my head to a coffee table,’ protested a Cockney tearaway (played by Eric Idle) to a bemused interviewer (Terry Jones).

‘You see, I had transgressed the unwritten code. Dinsy didn’t want to. I had to insist. He was a real darlin’. He used to give his muvver flowers.’ It was hilarious — still is. And it captured perfectly the way starstruck sycophants have always sucked up to the twins. The Kray ‘brand’ was paramount from the outset, powered by their fearsome mother. They were born in 1933, and she taught them in their cradles, in Bethnal Green, that they were special. More to the point, she made sure that everyone in the neighbourhood knew that her twins, in their matching blue coats and white berets, were not to be messed with. Later, she sent them round to a notorious local villain to be steeped in stories of cop-killers and the good old bad old days. It all lodged in their minds and their personalities.

‘From an early age,’ said Reggie, ‘we took it for granted that we’d end up being famous.’ Thereafter, they consciously worked on their act, taking their example from Hollywood, and not just the gangster movies of Humphrey Bogart and Jimmy Cagney that they loved to copy. In pubs, Ronnie always sat facing the door so he could see who was coming in — a trick he picked up from the gun-slinging hero in the cowboy film Shane. Ronnie and Reggie Kray pictured in the 1960s There was something stagey about everything they did. At the moment Ronnie shot George Cornell dead in the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel, the jukebox was playing The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Any More by the Walker Brothers. (Today, talks on the twins take place there, you can take a selfie photo at the spot where Cornell was shot and the pub sells a Krays Walks booklet for £3 and Krays DVDs for £20.) Anything unusual about them took on a special significance.

When, in their teens, they got into brawls with other gangs, word got round that they were telepathic because they never spoke a word to each other as they jointly laid into some poor sap. Their carefully constructed reputations for violence made it easy to strong-arm their way into the network of East End billiard halls, pubs, clubs and gambling dens from which they could extract protection money and then take over the businesses. The violence became a legend in itself. Red-hot pokers were brandished in faces and inserted up the backsides of naked victims; claw hammers smashed hands to smithereens. A punter who complained about the quality of fruit Violet Kray was serving at her market stall had his left ear and a large part of his nose sliced off with a knife, which was then jammed in his anus. The mental wounds were just as great — he was still in need of psychiatric care 30 years later. You never crossed the Krays. Small-time villain Lenny Hamilton did something minor to offend them and found himself in the kitchen of a Kensington gambling club they owned, with Ronnie heating up pointed knife-sharpeners on the cooking range. ‘These two big geezers wrapped my arms round my back,’ he said.

‘Then Ronnie came towards me with a white-hot knife sharpener and burned off my hair. Then he burned my face. ‘I was too terrified to say anything. Ronnie kept re-heating the irons. He was obviously enjoying himself. I closed my eyes and he shouted: “Open your effing eyes! I’m going to burn them out and kill you!” ‘He held the sharpener about an inch from my left eye for three or four minutes, then someone said: “No, Ron, not that,” and he just switched off and told me to go. I staggered out. The smell of burning flesh was sickening.’ A witness to the murder of Jack ‘The Hat’ McVitie — the crime for which they were finally convicted — watched in horror as Reggie skewered his victim with a carving knife. ‘It was savagery. Reggie was foaming at the mouth like a raging bull.

Blood was everywhere, all over the wall, spattered over the windows.’ The Krays drink tea at home in London after helping police with their probe into the murder of George Cornell Journalist Michael Thornton suffered a broken nose and a gash on his forehead that required 22 stitches because he’d supposedly ‘disrespected’ Ronnie by turning down his homosexual advances. In the face of such horrors, many of their ludicrously loyal admirers and celebrity fans chose to look the other way. All they wanted to talk about was how generous the twins were, the charities they supported, the fund-raising events they organised for under-privileged children. Even these were rip-offs. According to one of their associates, the proceeds of charity auctions were divvied up — with a third to the cause and two-thirds to the Krays. After they were jailed, there were many who clung to the myth. Their mum refused to see the truth. A friend found her crying when they went on trial. ‘They’re saying at the Old Bailey that they murdered people. They didn’t murder anybody, did they?

Look at all the film stars they knew and even a lord they brought round here to have a cup of tea.’ Countless others convinced themselves that the twins were not so much vicious hoods as latter-day Robin Hoods — however much that was a carefully constructed fallacy. That’s what brought tens of thousands on to the streets for Kray family funerals. When brother Charlie was buried, Reggie was released from prison to attend. ‘Three cheers for Reggie,’ the crowds cried as he acknowledged them with a wave of his manacled hand. He was the star turn, as ever. In prison and in Broadmoor (where Ronnie was lodged as criminally insane), the Krays continued to live well off the legend they had created about themselves. Ronnie dined on smoked salmon from Harrods, ordering so many goodies through the Broadmoor canteen that at one point his bill stood at £7,000. Money kept rolling in from the books about them, from payments from journalists. The family picked up £225,000 in consultancy fees for the Kemp brothers’ Kray film.

They were also paid vast sums to lend the Kray name to dodgy debt collecting agencies and other shady businesses, according to a former kissagram girl who, bizarrely, ended up married to Ronnie. She recalled how they got hundreds of letters a week ‘from people desperate to do things with them or to get something from them. They would pick out the ones they thought might be useful’. ‘They always wrote back on company paper, signing off: “God bless, Your friend, Ron [or Reg] Kray.” They knew all these people wanted was to be able to call themselves friends of the Krays.’ Legend, a new film about the Krays, has opened to rave reviews for actor Tom Hardy who plays both twins Reginald Kray (left) and Ronnie Kray (right) pictured in police mugshots after being arrested in the 1960s From his cell, Reggie encouraged another myth — that they were nice really. His specious argument was that they only indulged in gangster-on-gangster violence and were never a danger to the public. ‘It’s a different criminal world now — far more deadly,’ he was quoted as saying in 1988.

‘Then it was criminals waging war against other criminals. Old ladies didn’t get attacked by thugs in those days. Young girls didn’t get raped in broad daylight. Coppers didn’t get kicked and punched and spat on at football matches. There was a kind of respect for people in those days.’ A silly notion grew up that the streets were safer when Ronnie and Reggie ruled them. One of their own has given the lie to that. Chris Lambrianou was one of The Firm, and jailed for his part in the murder of McVitie. In prison he became a born-again Christian. The Krays were never Robin Hood, he insists. ‘If a man was starting a club and making a living, they went in and took it off him. And they never gave it back to the poor. They spent it on clothes, drinks, holidays, their fancy country pile in Suffolk. They didn’t look after anybody.’ Ronnie Bender was Ronnie Kray’s personal chauffeur and drove him to the flat where McVitie was murdered. Afterwards, he was ordered to bundle the body into a car. He was jailed for life for murder. Interviewed just before Reggie’s death in 2000, he was deeply resentful.

‘Ronnie always promised to see I wasn’t implicated. He said he’d tell the truth to see I was exonerated, but it never happened. They chucked me to the wolves.’ So did the Kray’s presence make the East End a better place all those years ago, as people were claiming? ‘Rubbish,’ he replied. ‘Greed and jealousy, that’s all they were about.’ Greed, jealousy and the extreme sadism that encouraged that dog-torturing burglar to want to emulate them. As the Kray myth takes hold yet again with a slick movie, we’d do well to remember that.

Question: Who plays both of the Kray twins in the 2015 film Legend?
Answer: TOM HARDY